Our RedBoards are great. But don't they sometimes seem a little BIG?!

Enter smôl, a new range of boards which are both small in size and small on current draw. It's a smôl world!

The smôl ZOE-M8Q is a high accuracy, miniaturized, GNSS board that is perfect for applications that don't possess a lot of space. The on-board ZOE-M8Q is a 72-channel GNSS receiver, meaning it can receive signals from the GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo constellations. This increases precision and decreases lock time.

To minimize the current draw as much as possible, the smôl ZOE-M8Q can be powered down completely when you're not using it. The smôl ZOE-M8Q GPS is also equipped with an on-board rechargeable battery that provides power to the RTC on the ZOE-M8Q. This reduces the time-to-first fix from a cold start (~30s) to a hot start (~1s). The battery will maintain RTC and GNSS orbit data without being connected to power for up to five hours. The battery is recharged whenever the smôl 3.3V rail is active.

Since the ZOE-M8Q is a tiny GNSS receiver and to minimize its footprint, we've added a u.FL connector to allow the use of both large standard ceramic antennas as well as very small chip scale antennas. 3.3V is provided on the u.FL, so you can use an active antenna if you want to.

Why not pair the smôl ZOE-M8Q with a smôl ESP32 Processor Board to create a very small USB GNSS system? Or, pair it with a smôl Header, pull GPIO0 low, and you've got a truly miniature Qwiic GNSS!

smôl is an ecosystem of miniature processor boards, peripheral boards, power boards and accessories. Designed to be both physically small and to have the smallest possible current draw, smôl is the perfect choice for applications like wildlife tracking or discrete long-term monitoring. smôl boards are designed to stack one on top of the other, using 16-way 0.5mm-pitch Flexible Printed Circuits (FPCs) to provide the interconnect from one board to the next. Looking for a really compact solution for your next project? This is it!

We will be adding new smôl boards over the coming months. Don't see the board you need for your application? Reach out to us via the SparkX Forum and tell us which board(s) we should add next!

u-blox ZOE-M8Q:

• 72-Channel GNSS Receiver
• 2.5m Horizontal Accuracy
• 18Hz Max Update Rate
• Time-To-First-Fix:
  • Cold: 26s
  • Hot: 1s
• Max Altitude: 50,000m
• Max G: ≤4
• Max Velocity: 500m/s
• Velocity Accuracy: 0.05m/s
• Heading Accuracy: 0.3 degrees
• Current Consumption: ~29mA Tracking GPS+GLONASS
• Software Configurable
  • Geofencing
  • Odometer
  • Spoofing Detection
  • Low Power Mode
  • Many others!
• Supports NMEA, UBX and RTCM protocols over the smôl I²C interface

smôl Specifics:

• Interface: I²C
  • Default Address: 0x42
• GPIO:
  • Uses GPIO0 for power control (via waterfalling)
  • Leave GPIO0 floating or pull high to disable power to the ZOE-M8Q (default state)
  • Pull GPIO0 low to enable power for the ZOE-M8Q

Properties:

• Length: 1.60" (40.6mm)
• Width: 0.42" (10.7mm)
• Height: 0.18" (4.5mm) max. including u.FL connection
• Weight: 1.4g (0.05oz)
• PCB thickness: 0.8mm

smôl ZOE-M8Q Documentation:

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Hookup Guide
• Datasheet (ZOE-M8Q)
• Integration Manual (ZOE-M8Q)
• Product Summary (ZOE-M8Q)
• GitHub Hardware Repo
• Arduino Examples
• SparkFun u-blox GNSS Arduino Library

smôl Documentation:

• smôl Hookup Guide